The Thing (2011)

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

The Thing serves as a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the thriller is produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (Dawn of the Dead).

Opens Friday, October 14th.

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The Back-up Plan

The Back-up Plan is a comedy that explores dating, love, marriage and family “in reverse.”

After years of dating, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez) has decided waiting for the right one is taking too long. Determined to become a mother, she commits to a plan, makes an appointment and decides to go it alone. That same day, Zoe meets Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) – a man with real possibilities.

Trying to nurture a budding relationship and hide the early signs of pregnancy becomes a comedy of errors for Zoe and creates confusing signals for Stan. When Zoe nervously reveals the reason for her unpredictable behavior, Stan commits fully and says he’s in. Never before has love seen a courtship where a wild night of sex involves three in a bed – Stan, Zoe and the ever-present massive pregnancy pillow. Or, where “date night” consists of being the “focal point” at a near-stranger’s water birth which does for kiddie pools what “Jaws” did for swimming in the ocean. The real pregnancy test comes when both of them realize they really don’t know each other outside of hormonal chaos and birth preparations. With the nine month clock ticking, both begin to experience cold feet. Anyone can fall in love, get married and have a baby but doing it backwards in hyper-drive could be proof positive that they were made for each other.

Jennifer Lopez (Monster-In-Law, Shall We Dance) and Alex O’Loughlin (August Rush, “Three Rivers”) star in The Back-up Plan for CBS Films, the film division within CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). The project, which commenced principal photography in Los Angeles on May 11, will debut in theaters spring of 2010.

The Back-up Plan is rated PG-13 and opens April 23rd.

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Fired Up!

As an adult, I can safely say that this is one of those “hate yourself in the morning for laughing” movies.  My first tip off that things would be on the gutter path is the poster itself, which I admit to never having seen until the moment I booked the tickets for me and three teens.  I wasn’t off base.  If there was a way to work in a PG-13 joke about the male and female anatomy, this film did it and did it in spades.

Two high school football players decide they just can’t tolerate another summer football camp with no girls to, well, you know.  They enlist the guidance of one of their enterprising siblings to get in the door of their school’s cheerleading squad in hopes of attending their camp, with 300 cheerleaders to serve as their personal booty call buffet.

Again, the trailer alone tells you all that and if you saw the trailer you have your fair warning about the content of the film.  Throw in the gay coaches, lesbian cheerleaders, scumbag boyfriends and hard partying football players and you have the mix for “OMG!  I can’t believe I am laughing at this!”

The bottom line about this film is that it was funny, but funny in a way that you cringe and guffaw all at the same time.  I found myself shaking my head but I still couldn’t stop laughing.

This may not be the film you want to spend your hard earned money on if you don’t have a PG-13er in your household, but it’s definitely a guilty cable pleasure if you don’t want to get caught laughing at Dr. Dick in public.   Two days later, my daughter is still retelling the jokes to her father with embarrassment and glee.  And I’m still laughing.